Multiplication is the key
by MeraNova
Summary: Jamie's attacked in the middle of the night and Kari is determined to find out why. Who would attack Jamie of all people? What does this person want? How can this person simply vanish without any sign of them even being there?


Why exactly I'm doing this I dunno. Probably the lack of Jamie stories that are actually good. No offense to fans of "The Santa Files" of other stories that pop up when you put Jamie in as a character. Long story short some psycho guy's after Jamie, is it because of his multiplication powers? Or is it something else? Or both? Who knows? Not me that's for sure…and I'm the one writing this, kinda sad ain't it?

Oh yeah, I make several brief appearances in this story, this specific chapter. Am I in this by name? Or by actual appearance? Who knows, only I do! If you can correctly identify me, one appearance will suffice but if you can name them all that'd be awesome, I'll let you make a cameo in one of my other XME stories. Preferably one guess a person. With a guess put in your name, age, and appearance. If you're paranoid feel free to send in false information. Official disclaimer is at the end of my story so I can just put in "I own nothing besides Saru and Kari in this work." Instead of "I own nothing except Kari and Saru" over, and over, and over. Right, I'll hafta finish my other fic before Saru will make any true sense but I hope ya'll can piece it together.

* * *

Kari Ann Forester couldn't sleep. She had insomnia, she's always had insomnia. In the bed across the room Saru Elisabeth Wagner was fast asleep. She thought she heard footfalls just outside her door so she slowly stood up from her bed and crossed to the door. Her brown hair falling in front of her pastel green eyes. Her glasses lay abandoned on her nightstand. Then the footfalls stopped and an almost muted yelp came from just outside her room. Kari quickly but silently grabbed her glasses up then threw open the door.

"Who's there?" She asked holding out one hand. In this hand was a ball of pure light energy. She noticed a figure over one of her team mates, who was lying on the floor, before this figure simply vanished. No smell of brimstone like when Kurt "bamfed" as it came to be called. No noise like when Kurt bamfed, just simply disappeared. That's when she noticed who it was on the floor.

Jamie. He was on his side with blood coming from his head. Kari didn't know much about wounds but she did know that head wounds usually bled out more than other wounds and that she had to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. But for some reason she just had to take a picture. So she grabbed a camera off the shelf just inside the room and snapped a quick photo before kneeling down next to him. "Good lord Jamie." She whispered gently as she felt his head for any gashes or cuts that would bleed that badly. It was on the back of his head.

Bobby stood in his room in shock. He had heard something hitting someone then a thump. Then a door opening and after that silence. Eerie silence that chilled him to the bone. And that was saying something since Bobby turned into an ice man . He opened his door to see Kari sitting on the floor holding Jamie's head. "Don't just stand there Bobby. Find someone!" Kari ordered; Bobby had frozen when he saw the blood shining in the moonlight from a window in Kari's room. He had run off down the hall leaving Kari with the youngest member of the New Recruits.

"What happened Kari?" Xavier asked her. Kari sat shaking in a chair beside the bed in which Jamie had been placed.

"I was sitting in my bed when I heard someone walking down the hall. Then there was a yelp, I could barely hear it. So I opened the door and saw this guy over him and when I asked who it was the guy just vanished. So I ducked down and saw the blood. I found where he was bleeding from and put pressure on it to stop the bleedin'." Kari said quietly. Her eyes flicked to Jamie and back to the professor. "Is he gonna be OK Prof.? I mean he had to have been whacked pretty hard."

"He will be fine Kari. Since you had the mind to stop the bleeding best you could before anyone else had got there. What happened after that?"

"Well, then Bobby came out after a bit and just stood there so I told him to find someone." Kari said calmly. She might have seemed calm to anyone watching but the professor knew better. It was when Kari was calm that she was actually the most stressed out, she would go into a temporary emotional paralysis. It was a natural defense mechanism she had personally asked about the professor doing. Usually he was against trying to change people's reactions to things, but when he saw how her powers would go ballistic when she got so horrified or stressed he decided to comply with her request.

"Yeah." Bobby said from a chair on the other side of the bed. "I ran until I was outside Scott's room so I woke him up and dragged him to where Kari was." Bobby said filling in where Kari couldn't. He spotted Kari stealing a glance at him then she looked at Jamie with concern in her eyes. "Aren't you freaked out by this?"

"Of course I am. It's just I have this natural defense thing where I can't feel emotions when I'm majorly stressed or freaked as the case may be." Kari said simply as she watched Jamie. She felt like she had to baby him. She felt like she was guilty of not protecting the one who was a little brother to her. "Oh yeah. Professor My folks are headin' outta town and they wanna know if they can send Alex here." She said randomly. Xavier nodded.

"We'll discuss that later." He said calmly before wheeling himself out of the room. He was met by Hank who was looking a little off. "How is he doing?" Xavier asked him. Hank sighed.

"Well the bleeding was the worst thing at the moment but by the look of his body I'd have to say this wasn't his first encounter with something painful. Just in the past month." Hank said simply. He sighed again and leaned against the wall. "They need to make themselves open to discussion. 'One can always find true warmth with those who they can rely on and can rely on them.'" He said calmly. Xavier wasn't familiar with this quote.

"Who is that by Hank?"

"A fourteen year old girl in Delaware. She calls herself Kathryn T." Hank said solemnly. "It's kind of sad when the wise words of today are doming from children with Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder." He admitted. Xavier allowed himself a mental chuckle.

"But some people insist that these disorders are the next step in evolution." He pointed out simply, it was true. A girl who went to school with Kari and occasionally came over to the institute had said her brother was told this often. Hank looked inside and saw Kari was sitting by the bed singing softly in Japanese.

Itsu demo hanashitakatta hanbun mo ienakatta

au tabi sonna watashi wo tsutsumi komu hitomi ni aeta

soba ni iru yo yume wa tsutaerutabi kagayaku yo

sotto kureta egao ga totemo ureshikatta yasashikatta

glory glory you're my shine kono namida mo

kimi ga iru kara yuuki ni kawaru

akiramenaide aruite yuku negai kanau basho e

mirai wa dooshite futari kimi wa mada soba ni iruno

futari ga deatta machi wa kyou mo mata ugoki tsuzukeru

shinjirareru itsumo daiji na mono wa kawaranai

tooku hanareru toki mo kokoro musubiaeru waraiaeru

glory glory you're my shine samishii yoru mo

kimi ga iru kara yuuki ni kawaru

kono te no hira ni aru nukumori zutto hanasanaide

hontou wa ima mo mabushi sugiru

kimi ga iru koto hokori ni omou

kujiketa toki mo mae wo aruite michi wo terasu you ni

nagareru kumo mo soyogu kaze mo

kimi ga iru kara yuuki ni kawaru

kono te no hira ni aru nukumori zutto hanasanaide

glory glory you're my shine donna toki mo

kimi ga iru kara yume wo mirareru

tsuyoku naritai wakachi aitai kitto tadori tsukeru

* * *

The Japanese stuff is actually a pretty cool song called "Glory-Kimi ga iru kara" which means "Glory -because you're here" It's one of my favorite Japanese songs. Right up there with "Believe" and "Fish" which is actually the song's name. What they were thinking when they named the song "Fish" I have no idea.

Oh yeah. Tell me if this makes me pathetic or not. I finally realized why Bobby's called "Iceman" when I typed in "And that was saying something since Bobby turned into an ice man." And I'm 14...Obviously not the brightest color in the crayon box...I'd be a purple or a blue...maybe even a yellow or green...


End file.
